Distressing reports have been reaching the media over the abuse of political prisoners in Saudi jails. The reports have indicated that detainees are now routinely abused sexually during their interrogation. The reports have indicated that the new practice, hardly heard of in Arabia in the past, has been suggested to Interior Minister nayef's officials by North African "specialists" where sodomy has been integrated as a routine psychological form of torture in the last two decades which correspond to the rise of the Islamic renaissance movement.

The Maghrebi countries where sodomy has been much in use against Islamic prisoners are Tunisia and Algeria, themselves trained in this practice by the French psychological experts. In view of the fact that the political prisoners are members of the Islamic movement, sodomy, it was suggested to Nayef, is an efficient means to break the Islamist psychologically by humiliating him.

We call on human rights organizations worldwide to make the necessary inquiries in this respect and to take the required steps to put an end to this humanly degrading practice.

Drug ring uncover police weakness:
One high-ranking police officer was killed and several security men were injured in Jeddah early last November during a clash between a drug ring and the Saudi security forces. This ring has been operating in Jeddah for quite a time and the local citizens complained to the police about its activities many times without steps being taken to eradicate it. The absence of police action has enabled the ring to grow bigger recruiting, through devious means including blackmail, a great many youths hardly over 20 years old, which has caused concern amongst the population in many districts of Jeddah where the issue has become the topic of daily local discussion.

The police seem to have been caught unprepared for the showdown as, according to reports, the ring appears to have been uncovered at random, without knowledge about its strength or composition. This explains the number of police casualties at the hands of people who were not as heavily armed as the security forces. It tends also to explain why many members of the ring escaped unharmed.
The official press gave little detail about the engagement but, somehow, Interior Minister Nayef stole the show since he was presented as the hero of what amounts to a tragic situation for his security forces. But the question evaded by the regime's media and the police authorities is: why is it that, for so long, the police has abstained from clamping down on the drug traffickers in spite of repeated complaints from the citizens?

For a long time Nayef has focused his ministry's potentialities on the security of the royal family, neglecting by so doing the protection of society against evil-doers. Meanwhile, it is a well-known fact that many young princes, including nayef's sons, have been involved themselves in the drug business, which is a likely indication why the police turned a blind eye to the citizens complaints.

Last but not least, the Interior Ministry's anti-Islamic strategy is to blame for the lack of concern with the security of the population. The Islamic renaissance movement, the only force of social mobilization, is armed with an agenda of social, political and economic moralization and reform. It is, therefore, seen by the secular rulers of the Muslim world, not least of all by the Saudi rulers, as the enemy to neutralize, even if this means seeking the active assistance of alien powers. In this situation drug rings are seen by Nayef and his clan as assets rather than liabilities. Under a dictatorship the people are not guaranteed basic rights of expression and thought, let alone the right to protection.